Wednesday, February 27, 2008

... everyone better HTFU because Monstertrack is less than a month away.

In it's 9th year, the NYC original is already prepared to greet racers from around the globe with a full schedule of side events, gold sprints, and moderate revelry.

Betting pools have been opened, and the smack talk has been heavy.With the arrival of a few fast 07 newcomers to the mix, the top three could be anyone's game this year.Brooklyn rider Austin Horse will be there on his custom Gangsta, defending his title as the fastest bike courier in the world.For all of you that aren't lucky enough to make money by riding your bike, imagine it's like this, but in our fair city a instead of a cubicle:

Thursday, February 21, 2008

As per the requests of all you lanky folk, we've moved forward on the prototype frames for our extra large Gangsta Track. It's desinged to be the longer, taller compliment to our smaller Gangstas, rounding out an impressive threesome.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

The extended runs of the SR6 came back from paint, and we're offering them as a frameset including drive, floating brake mount, and the Fox DHX 5.0 coil (other shocks availble by request), all with our lifetime warranty.

The three color options this round include Jet Black:Fire Engine Red:

and Battleship Gray:

Complete builds and custom colors are available. Call or Email the shop for pricing and color availability.

In other news, Factory Rider Tom LaMarche emailed us to let us know that the Bootleg Sessions is already accepting submissions for a second complilation. If his spot in the first DVD wasn't sign enough, Tom has been beating parts into submission trying up up the ante.

Friday, February 8, 2008

As a new feature here at BROOKLYN, we're devoting a few Fridays every month for in depth, long term reviews of the products that get sent our way.

First up is the Kowa Suspension 160s Air single crown fork (not to be confused with Showa).

We've always been impressed with the manufacturing capabilities of the Japanese, and first impressions of the Kowa didn't dissapoint.The beefy box section crown is hollow to save weight, and holds in 35mm "sima" hard ano coated sanchions....

...that enter the lowers at a bulged section, providing space for the substantial seals, and probably (we're guessing) some huge bushing of some sort.

In conjunction with a standard bolt on 20mm thru-axle, these features certainly contribute to the incredible torsional stiffness of the fork which , to our surprise, was close to par with that of a 888 triple crown even at it's highest travel setting (more on this later).Compared to the Fox TALAS 36 we've been riding all season, external adjustments on the Kowa seem sparse, and are limited to 2 stroke adjustments and 1 travel adjustment:

Positive progressive Air via a shrader valve at the bottom of the left leg.

External rebound via an aluminum knob on the bottom of the right leg.

On the top of the left leg is an aluminum knob for travel adjustment, which functions a lot like the older Manitou IT travel adjustment. Turn the knob 180 degrees to the open position, and the travel can be adjusted from Fully Extended:

To Fully Compressed:...and anywhere between 20 and 160mm of travel. Then you just turn the knob to the closed position and ride.

Some minor complaints are the Boxxer disc mount, which is less of an industry standard in North America and had to be purchased separately. Lack of external compression damping of any kind is a little worrisome, but the lack of bells and whistles doesn't detract from everything else the Kowa has going for it so far, and should appeal to those riders with a K.I.S.S. mentality.Another gripe is the user manual which is probably well written in the native Japanese, but if you speak English something was lost in translation.

According to the site, the fork is designed for "Downhill, Freeride, Urban, Park", which we'll take to mean that we have liberty to wail on them all season and report back with updates, including a obligatory tear-down and rebuild of all its juicy innards.

This is quite a loss to the world of cycling. Sheldon Brown helped cycling enthusiasts through his sort of ad-hoc online compendium of bicycle information, from the basic to the esoteric. Whether he informed or irritated, Sheldon's verbosity and hideous-but-functional site design have left a broadly-received imprint.-Malcom